Should I include in an employee reference that they displayed personality disorder?

Question

I am a small business owner who contracts work out. When work slowed down, one of my subcontractors called me incessantly (12 or 15 times in 2 hours) when I was away from the phone and accused me of avoiding her. Now, she wants a recommendation. She, frankly, scared me.

Answer 1

If you give a reference, you have two duties. Firstly, you have to be fair to the person you a giving the reference about. In the United Kingdom, from where I am responding, you have limited privilege in that you are entitled to express reasonable opinion, for instance that the person scared you. On the other hand, you are not entitled to make prejudiced or malicious comments. In this respect, a reasonable person would in my view think that to say a person displays personality disorder is to make a judgment which requires specialist justification, e.g. by a psychiatrist or a clinical psychologist. On the assumption that you do not have such a qualification, or a formal report about the person concerned from such a professional, you are not entitled to make such a comment. In the absence of specialist advice it would appear prejudiced and malicious.

Your second duty if you give a reference is to give an honest opinion to the recipient. In this case, I do not agree with the answers to this question that say not to refer to your subcontractors' behaviour. If the person you are giving the reference gets a job (or similar benefit) as a result, a similar event to that you experienced occurs and the employer (or other concerned party) is seriously damaged you could be liable, and there would also be implications for your business reputataion. You can, and should, put matters in factual terms, i.e. that you were harrassed by being called over 12 times in 2 hours. Incidentally giving a reference is not the only reason I hope you have kept a record of this event.

Major employers tend to stick as far as possible to giving basic facts in references. Other respondents have given you details of web sites to look up for informationa about how to write references: I recommend this advice.

There is no reason why you have to give a reference. If the person concerned objects, the excessive phone calls appear to be in any case enough reason to refuse on moral grounds. Alternatively, and I think this is what I would do, you can make clear to the person concerned that if you are asked to give a reference it will be a bad one. If she is wise, she will ask somebody else. And it is grossly improper to try to influence a reference - if she starts pressing you not to mention the phone calls or to give a generally positive recommendation you can, and should, refuse any reference at all on the grounds of improper influence. Thirdly, you can of course go ahead and give the bad reference.

Whilst you have received a considerable number of responses, so far as I can see they have all neglected a very important issue. If you state that the person has a personality disorder, the question may arise as to whether she became psychologically disturbed as a result of your behaviour towards her as an employer or contractor. You might get sued on Health and Safety grounds. If this happens, presumably you will have to see a lawyer, and your employment liability insurance will presumably come into play. There is a possibility that what you say in the reference may if this happens adversely afect your case.

Major employers usually have a standard practice of conducting an exit review whenever an employee or subcontractor leaves or is dismissed. This is another example from the larger organisations you would be wise to follow, if only by thinking over what happened for yourself in a structured way. Could you have kept your subcontractors in the picture better about the lack of orders so that they were less stressed about lack of work?

You don't want this person rubbishing your firm's reputation. You need to deal with this reference issue clearly and simply. If necessary, you want to be able to explain clearly and unequivocally why any accusations made about you are wrong. Each time you take action about this problem, ask yourself first how you would justify yourself if this problem person made an unfair accusation about what you are doing.

In the last resort, if you are scared as an employer it is a legal issue just as it would be if you were a private person, but let us hope it doesn't come to that.

Answer 2

No is the short answer.
If the reference is to be written you should never include this sort of opinion.
She may just be whacky enough (if she somehow found out) to follow through by taking you to court if she thinks you have libelled her by writing something about her which is not (strictly? medically?) true and which, she feels, lost her a job offer from someone else.
If the reference is done by phone call - again, don't put it into words but you can say that there are reasons why you could not 100% recommend her without going into detail.
Do you have to give her a reference?
Presumably, as she is a subbie she is not in your direct employment. You need not use her again. Tell her that it is not your policy to do this for anyone and hope she is satisfied with this.
I know this sound harsh but you have to be realistic in business.

Answer 3

Unless you have a degree in one of the mental health disciplines that allows you to diagnose people with personality disorders, I would emphatically say that you cannot under any circumstances write or verbally tell someone the lady in question has a personality disorder. To do so would be to place yourself at the mercy of a lawsuit.

Even if you do work in the mental health professions and are legally allowed to diagnose mental illnesses, this lady is not a client of yours and thus you cannot make a formal diagnosis.

So why not stick to the facts? Tell the lady, as politely as possible, that you would prefer not to give her a recommendation. You can tell her that it's against your policy and leave it at that. If she persists, just keep repeating that it is not your policy to do recommendations.

If anyone does contact you about her, all you have to do is say that you found her diffult to work with and annoying on a personal level, and would not choose to work with her again. I don't think there is anything actionable in saying that, but it ought to clue the caller in that the lady is not someone you can recommend.

If there is anything specific about the lady's words or actions that worries you, I'd call the police and ask them if they have someone who deals with stalkers.

Good luck.

Answer 4

I think you could find yourself in trouble if you said the person had a personality disorder and you are not qualified to give that diagnosis, even though you may think it. Best just to relate in the reference the facts of how the employee did their job. I would never give a bad reference. You only need to give the basics, eg. worked well, was employed from such and such a date, timekeeping was okay. You know that sort of thing. You don't want to end up in court do you, it might cost you in more ways than one.

Answer 5

An employee is not obligated to give an employer any information on whether they have a mental disorder. Therefore you are not allowed to write anything, as not only may it screw up her chances of getting a job and leaving you alone, but you are also not qualified to write anything of the sort down unless there is a proper diagnosis. Even then you shouldn't mention it.

Answer 6

you have to be very careful here as i believe it is illegal to give someone a bad reference now. if you are scared of the actions of the person wanting a referance then give her one explaining how well she works but asking them to contact you regarding further information. then if you feel the need you can explain in person or via the phone and clear your own conscience at the same time.

Answer 7

hi , you may have an impression of her, however you state she has a personality disorder!, you must not make this comment as you are not medically qualified to give such an opinion, if you were to make such a reference, i am sure she would have you in court for defamation pretty quickly.
What i tend to do is when a new employer contacts me and asks for a reference, i tend to ask them to ask me what they wish to know, they always ask would you employ him / her again, this would be an ideal oppurtunity to say no, but be careful and make sure you are not being stitched by her.

Enjoy and good luck

Answer 8

deborah
my yahoo group is looking for wonderful people like you

i have folk looking for work and if this person is giving you so much greif i bet you could find a replacement in the group
it's aimed at small companys who are unable to advertise through agencys
oh well i'll give you the link and let you decide
but employer input is desparate in need in the group
if the link is no good to you please concider maybe some else who may like to use it

http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/you_choose_your_hours/

Answer 9

In a reference you cannot write anything that is not absolutely true otherwise it becomes libel.

So unless you have evidence that clinically she has a personality disorder, you cannot say that.

Word the reference so that everything you state is true.

Hope that helps (UK)

Answer 10

No, I wouldn't put it down. Just give the bare bones of a recommendation - dates of employment and work done, studiously avoid any comment on character, that'll do it.